To:THE BOLSHEVIK DEPUTIES OF THE FOURTH DUMA[1]

Written:Written January 25, 1913Published:First published in 1924 in the journalKrasnaya LetopisNo. 1.

      Sent from Cracow to St. Petersburg.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1977],

      Moscow,Volume 43,

      page335a.Translated:Martin Parker and Bernard IsaacsTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Wehave received a stupid and insolent letter from the editors. We are
not replying. They should be kicked out.

WehavenotreceivedLuckNo. 4. Will you please send
it!![2]

Theabsence of news about the plan for reorganising the Editorial Board
is causing us great concern. What has been done for this
reorganisation?[3]Why don’t Vera, Fram, Andrei or Alexei write a
single word? We earnestly ask them to write as quickly as
possible. Reorganisation, or better still the complete expulsion of all the
old ones, is absolutely essential. Absurdly conducted. They lavish praise
on the Bund andZeit:it’s simply disgusting. They can’t take the
right line againstLuck. Disgraceful the way they handle
articles. Sheer stupidity aboutRabochy
Golos.[4]Simply exasperating.... We are waiting impatiently for
news about all this....

Whathas been done about the control of funds? Who has received the
subscription money? In whose hands is it? How much is it?

[1]Thisletter was added to that of G. Y. Zinoviev and was addressed to N. I. Podvoisky.—Ed.

[2]Whatapparently interested Lenin in No. 4 ofLuckfor
January 5, 1913, was a paragraph “Representation on the International
Bureau” written in reply to a paragraph under the same heading inPravdaNo. 201 for December 23, 1942. The liquidators declared inLuchthat they considered representation of the R.S.D.L.P. on the
I.S.B. (Lenin and Plekhanov) to be one-sided and raised the question of the
absence on the I.S.B. of a representative of the Menshevik Organising
Committee.

[3]Thisrefers to the reorganisation of the Editorial Board ofPravdaon the basis of the decisions of the Cracow meeting of the
C.C., R.S.D.L.P. with Party functionaries. The absence of news about the
beginning of this reorganisation caused Lenin grave concern, since in
January 1913Pravdaagain made a number of mistakes in its
work. On January 15 and 23 the newspaper published letters to the editor
from deputy Y. I. Jagiello, Polish Socialist Party member, in which he
advertised himself as a representative of the Polish working class; on
January 17 and 24Pravdapublished front-page advertisements
announcing the current issues of the liquidators’ newspaperZeit,
the organ of the Bund;Pravdadisplayed indecision in the fight
against the liquidators; despite the recommendations of the Cracow meeting,
it did not publish certain articles forwarded to it by the C.C. Bureau
Abroad, etc.

OnJanuary 22 (O.S.) a joint meeting of members of the Bureau of the
C.C., R.S.D.L.P., in Russia withPravdaeditorial staff was held,
attended by 12 persons, among them C.C. members Y. M. Sverdlov,
G. I. Petrovsky, F. I. Goloshchokin, Secretary of the C.C. Bureau Vera
Lobova and others. A report was made at the meeting on the decisions of the
C.C. and the Cracow meeting concerning the reorganisation of the Editorial
Board; Y. M. Sverdlov was endorsed as editor of the newspaper with the
right of veto and censorship of all articles; a member of the
St. Petersburg Committee was elected to the Board for the purpose of closer
contact with the St. Petersburg Bolshevik organisation, and Konkordia
Samoilova was endorsed as secretary of the Editorial Board.

Asa result of these measures, the general level of the newspaper
rose. From February 10 (0. S.) a Sunday supplement was issued in the form
of loose sheets. The paper’s circulation increased. In a number of
subsequent letters Lenin noted a considerable improvement in the work of
the Editorial Board.

Zeit—a weekly, organ of the Bund, published in Yiddish in
St. Petersburg from December 20, 1912 (January 2, 1913), to May 5 (18),
1914.

[4]Leninis referring apparently to the paragraph “A Quibble” published
inPravdaNo. 6, January 8, 1913, in whichPravdadenounced the improper conduct of the newspaperLuch, but made a
mistake in quarrelling with the editors of the journalRabochy
Golosover minor questions not involving principles.

ThejournalRabochy Golos(Worker’s Voice), organ of the
Textile Workers Trade Union, was being prepared for the press, but did not
appear.